“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…” – Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Today I am ready for the reawakening of Spring. It is a new month, a new week, and a new day. A new season.

Spring happens to be my favorite season. Not for the wind and rain and cold and dark, but for the newness of it all. Rebirth. The Reawakening of everything brown that brings back the green. The verdant beauty waiting just beneath the surface of the brown sticks and rustling dead leaves. Renewal.

I once heard this: “If we live to be 100 years old, we will have only experienced Spring 100 times”

But we experience Spring only if we’re paying attention.

That quote always brings me back to this season with wide eyes. In only weeks I’ll be looking out at flowers and hummingbirds and butterflies. By the way the deadened world looks now, it seems impossible. But it will come. Something bigger is at work, right before our eyes. Spring.

100 Days of Spring #100DaysofSpring

My life always fills up and brims over with busyness, so unless I am intentional I will miss this rebirth we call Spring. To help me remember to watch and be on the lookout for the miracle of Spring, I intend to do these 5 things as often as possible:

1. Pause and look at the landscape, and notice what has changed from the day before.
2. Take a walk through someplace wild—the backyard, or a park, or an open field. I love the fresh smells and popping colors floating on the breeze.
3. Plant some flowers. Pansies are cheery reminders of spring with their colorful faces and sweet disposition, and I’ve planted a mass of them in a container on my deck. I’m excited for flowers and color as Spring draws near.
4. Cut bouquets to bring indoors. Tulips, daffodils, lily of the valley, peonies, iris … an endless parade of Spring beauties wait outside laden with fragrance to be enjoyed. I can’t wait for the peonies to come.
5. Pull out the camera and capture a photo or two of a Wow moment—that moment when I see something new and its beauty takes my breath away. Somehow, capturing something through a lens makes the experience richer, into one that can be shared.

 

 

If you have a cell phone with a camera and have Instagram (my favorite photo-sharing app), take one photo a day–not a great one, but one photo of Spring in action that catches your eye, and share it there. I’m tagging my photos with #100DaysofSpring so that at the end of the season, we can look back at Spring as it came. If you tag your spring photos with #100DaysofSpring (no spaces), they’ll show up in the tag and we can view all of them together.

My account at Instagram is @jenniferlynking. I hope you’ll join me!